Preppy fashion goes back to the '40s. It had its origins on Ivy League campuses among sporty men who played tennis, rugby, who sailed, hunted or rode horses. In the early days, Brooks Brothers was the premier merchandiser of preppy clothing.

When Elise Meyer was a girl, her mother Arlene wanted clothes that were well-made and casual, so she would buy shorts for herself in the Brooks Brothers boys' department. A few years later, her husband, John Meyer, a manufacturer of men's clothing, had an idea: Why not make clothes for women using traditional men's tailoring techniques?

By the mid-'60s, John Meyer of Norwich was no longer making men's clothes and was one of the country's leading manufacturers of well-tailored clothes for women. An ad of the time promoted the company's "man-tailored Ivy League-type Bermuda shorts and tapered pants for women." In later years, Meyer brought Madras into his palette of designs and customers loved it.

An exhibit now at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, "The Origins of Preppy: John Meyer of Norwich" traces the history, growth and decline of the New London County clothier.

"In 1959, my father's company started making women's wear. Nine years later, they made $28 milllion in sales, all in women's clothing," said Elise Meyer, curator of the exhibit.

"These were clothes for New England, Connecticut, for high school girls and college girls and young matrons. It's not what they were wearing in Florida or California. They were proper, tailored," Meyer said. "Before, women mainly wore uptight suits and dresses. It wasn't about leisure, or a suburban, casual lifestyle." She said her father wanted to sell women clothes that they could wear to "Derby Day at Yale or the Harvard regatta."

The colorful and fun exhibit is made of up dozens of beautifully preserved John Meyer dresses, suits, jackets, pants, shorts and shirts. Along the walls are items from the history of the Meyer company and the Meyer family, which told how they got into the clothing business in the first place. At its peak, Meyer's clothes were so ubiquitous on campuses that a headline in the Miami News read "Yes, College Girls, There Really Is A John Meyer."

Meyer bought almost all the items in the exhibit on eBay and etsy.com, in an attempt to assemble an archive-chronicle of her father's career.

Meyer said that the popularity of the TV show "Mad Men" has stoked interest in vintage clothing from that era, and the character Peggy often is seen in John Meyer-type clothing.

In the mid-60s, Perry Ellis, who later became a world-famous designer of sportswear, got his start in the business working for John Meyer. Elise Meyer said Ellis designed her wedding.

However, in the late '60s, the fortunes of John Meyer of Norwich began to decline. "In 1968, everyone started wearing blue jeans," Meyer said. "My father tried to do those kind of hippy things," but the company suffered anyway. John sold the firm to W.R. Grace in 1968 and died of cancer in 1974. Two of those hippy dresses are in the exhibit, a far cry from the proper Peggy type of dress, but beautifully made nonetheless.

Elise Meyer said that the distinctive look of her father's creations — the colors, the strong stitching the heathering, etc. — makes them unmistakable. "I go into a Goodwill and I don't even have to touch the clothes, I can find the John Meyer pieces based on the color, the quality and the fabrication."

Also at the Mattatuck now are three other exhibits. "Alter Ego: Bruce Sargeant|Mark Beard" is a show of sculptures and paintings by Beard that imagine Beard had a great-uncle Bruce Sargeant, whose work celebrated the male form. "Strange Beauty: The Photography of Carolyn Marks Blackwood" shows Blackwoods' unique interpretation of photos of birds, rivers and cornfields. On the rooftop is "Roofbots: The Lost Robot Colony," which imagines a long-forgotten lunar mining colony.

"THE ORIGIN OF PREPPY: John Meyer Of Norwich," "Alter Egos: Bruce Sargeant / Mark Beard" And "Strange Beauty: The Photography Of Carolyn Marks Blackwood" will be at Mattatuck Museum of Art, 144 W. Main St. in Waterbury, until Sunday, Sept. 8. Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $7, $6 students and seniors, free to members and children younger than 16. Details: www.mattatuck.org.